What do you get when you cross the love and lust of Valentine’s Day with the blank, pure, virginial walls of the art world? You get the Sexxxhibition! Art Gym is thrilled to announce this new exhibition celebrating the process by which we all came to be…SEX. Join us for the opening reception on January 31 from 5-8PM.

This polyglamorous exhibition is made up of 11 artists (an elevensome, if you will) creating work from the sensual to the sexual. Co-curators Louis Trujillo and James Mullane wanted to spread the love in their search for artists to include in the Sexxxhibition. The works shown range from drawings, paintings, robotic sculpture and even embroidered porn stills. There are also two binary ceramic genital installations, one celebrating and demystifying the vulva, and the other, a collection of penis shaped vases to house succulents – or is that suckulents?

While this show is visually lively and upbeat, each artist uses the topic of sex as a tool to discuss harder, deeper ideas. Take Esther Hernandez’s Roomboob for example. The artwork is a Roomba vacuum with a plastic cast boob fountain on top, which roams around the gallery at its will. While the piece is fun and lighthearted (it is after all a roaming boob fountain), for Hernandez the piece highlights that breastfeeding, an experience often connected to womanhood, is one foreign to her because she likely will never give birth. She explains in her artist statement, “of course I have the equipment to participate if I choose, but without the desire or interest what is it if I never use it, ornamental? And so naturally, I find this traditionally definitive aspect of being a woman sort of alien.”

When discussing the show, Trujillo and Mullane explained that as artists who create work of a sexual nature, they are often looked down upon by other artists for not creating highbrow enough art. While we are all very familiar with the nude as a concept throughout art history, once that nude turns sexual, it is considered significantly cheaper or even pornographic. The goal for them in the Sexxxhibition was to break down this notion and display artists who utilize the comical, playful, and even frisky side of sex to discuss more serious concepts. Because after all, sex is serious, and sex is seriously fun.

Sexxxhibition will be on display from January 31-February 22, 2019. Join us for an opening reception on Thursday, January 31 from 5-8PM. Cultura Chocolate will be providing appetizers for the opening, and will also have naughty chocolates for sale.